The possibility of Tatars, or in fact anyone, attacking the Fortezza, are not the real danger. Instead, time, rumor, and misplaced trust are the ultimate foe.
The Delivery – Margarita García Robayo
Languages are not internally coherent, fixed entities. Instead of assuming that all speakers of a language can understand each other with perfect ease, The Delivery reveals the fissures, gaps, and spaces of incomprehension that can exist between speakers of the same language.
Juan Rulfo’s only novel defies logic. It is out to evade readers, to tease them for their attempts at understanding. Uncertainties, red herrings, and anxieties abound, all of which give Pedro Páramo its particular flavor.
Human Sacrifices – María Fernanda Ampuero
The characters of these stories live in fear of the moment that a villain will grab hold of them. But there is another side to this fear: desire. The terrible thing, in Ampuero’s stories, also holds a certain allure.
Stories and Poems of a Class Struggle – Roque Dalton
[Roque Dalton] knew it would not be simple, winning a revolution in El Salvador. Still he went.
The Blue Light – Hussein Barghouthi
In this autobiographical novel, translated from the Arabic by Palestinian poet Fady Joudah, Hussein Barghouthi searches for a solution to his spiritual desolation.
The Complete Works of Álvaro de Campos – Fernando Pessoa
Simply being is rarely enough for Campos; he needs to think intensely about being, and feeling, and everything else.
The Book of Desire – Tiruvalluvar
Meena Kandasamy’s The Book of Desire reframes translation both as intimate practice and as a necessary political project.
[Quintana] strips away the illusions that parents hold that they can just “cloak” their language or argue behind closed doors. Children see through it. They always have.
Tales of Tangier: The Complete Short Stories of Mohamed Choukri
Even in the stories that project a more lighthearted air . . . there is a looming sense that something is horribly wrong, that the party is over.